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A ‘Light’ Introduction

Regular visitors to East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve (NNR) may have noticed a new face around the place. That’s me! My name is Emily Weeks and I am a placement student with Plantlife, but I will be spending quite a bit of time here at Yarner Wood. I spent much of my childhood outdoors, my family having a great appreciation for the natural world. Many a day was spent in National Trust gardens and walking trails though woods, which noRead more

Bumper Crop of Bovey Berries

As the days shorten and the light levels fall the woods settle down for winter dormancy, but this season is worthy of a woodland walk for the rainbow of colours and the hidden activity that takes place to put on this glorious display. The green of the summer is disappearing into the yellows, reds and browns of autumn as a prelude to the trees finally shedding their leaves and the berries remain for the duration – until they are pickedRead more

Reservoir Blogs …No.3

Armed with 500 plug plants and a small inflatable boat, aquatic specialists from Frog Environmental recently made a return visit to the reservoir in Yarner Wood to assess the success of the restoration works started in December 2018. It’s not often you see a small boat on the reservoir, but working on the water is all in a day’s work for this specialist team, and simply the best method for making checks on the newly installed floating islands. These vegetatedRead more

End of an Era

As many of you will be aware the Moor than meets the eye partnership scheme draws to a close later this year and the EcoSkills graduate trainee programme has come to an end… All together 15 of the 17 trainee Conservation Assistants who participated in the project, based here at Yarner, are employed in the conservation sector with 6 working in Devon / Eastern Cornwall – a wonderful legacy  for both the project and for the individuals concerned.  Congratulations toRead more

My Lichen Summer School

Visitors might be drawn in by the birds, bats and butterflies, or even the possibility of seeing an elusive otter, but the Bovey Valley, in the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve is also renowned for its more unassuming residents, an internationally renowned lichen population. Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, and at least one photosynthetic partner, usually an alga. They can colonise almost anywhere, but it’s the tree-dwellers which are attracting the attention of conservationists, as part ofRead more